Darius MOVILEANU and Elena ZAHARIA of Romania are the newly crowned champions in the Under 19 Mixed Doubles at the ORLEN European Youth Championships. In the final they overcame their fellow Romanian players Eduard IONESCU and Ioana SINGEORZAN.
The bronze medalists are Marcel BLASZCZYK and Zuzanna WIELGOS of Poland as well as Teodor ISTRATE of Romania and Nicole ARLIA of Italy.
MOVILEANU and ZAHARIA secured their victory in straight games (11 7 9). Elena ZAHARIA mentioned that the match was much closer than the score suggests but they fought harder for the win which was the key to their success.
Darius MOVILEANU who had lost his match for a medal in the singles event just before the mixed doubles final was left speechless with emotion after their victory.
In the semifinals Eduard IONESCU and Ioana SINGEORZAN overcame Marcel BLASZCZYK and Zuzanna WIELGOS of Poland in a close match (12 15 -10 2). The Romanian pair was well-prepared for a tough battle and their confidence in their game allowed them to clinch the victory.
“We knew what to expect. They beat very god Romania’s pairings Iulian CHIRITA and Bianca MEI ROSU in the Round of 16. We were prepared on a very close match ” said IONESCU.“We were 6-1 or 6-2 up in opening games and it ended by narowest of margins.”
SINGEORZAN pointed at very important quality of Romania’s pairings.
“The opening two games were very close and even when we lost the third game we did not lost our faith. We were verey confident in our game ” said Ioana.
In the other semifinal Darius MOVILEANU and Elena ZAHARIA prevailed against Teodor ISTRATE of Romania and Nicole ARLIA of Italy (8 6 7). The result doesn’t fully reflect the intensity of the match as Romania’s pairings did not give much space to their opponents and played aggressively to secure their spot in the final.
“The result does not accurately predict how close the game was. We did not underestimate our adversaries as we knew they were very strong ” said ZAHARIA.
Romania’s pairings applied a strong strategy not allowing much space for ISTRATE and ARLIA to take control of the match.
“We decided to play very aggressively. I had a very good block for Nicole but this time we opted to take the initiative and attack first ” said MOVILEANU.
